Stone
Temple Pilots
Core (C) /Purple (P)
(1992/1994)
Genre: Grunge,
Alternative Rock, Hard Rock, Alternative Metal
Two
fundamental albums from the grunge era of music, both albums are
pretty similar; one is the natural progression of the other and they are jammed
packed with killer songs. These guys took a lot s$!) because they were accused
of copy other contemporary bands like
Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains, but these guys are their own beast,
especial with the DeLeo brothers formula, which really separated this band from the
rest of the grunge pack.
Vocals and Lyrics: Scott Weiland, is the lyrical and
vocal daddy to a couple of mega classics from the 90’s, singers are willing to
kill to be able to pen the hits like this guy wrote back then. C 10 P 10
Instrumentation:
Guitar: Dean
DeLeo is a killer guitar player with a style of his own, that really progresses
over these two albums.
Bass: Robert
DeLeo, is one of my all time favorite rock bass players.
Drums: Eric Kretz is a solid hard rock drummer C 6.9 P
7.6
Melody and/or Structure: The structures of the songs
are pretty basic, what these to album bring to the table is some good old fashion
rock song writing, with a good use of melody. C 10 P 10
Sound, Production and Feeling: Core sound and
production are good, but you can tell that they had more money for Purple; it
has more production to it. C 8 P 8.5
Songs: Both Albums are good from start to finish. C 10
P 11
Originality: Look these guys didn’t invent anything
new, but are able to write two fantastic albums in a row. C 9 P 10
Overall: C 53.9 / P 57.1
Stone
Temple Pilots
Talk Show (Stone Temple Pilots)
Scott
Weiland
Stone Temple Pilots
Shangri-La Di DA (2001)
Genre: Post Grunge, Hard Rock, Psychedelic Rock
This album starts off pretty strong but here we have a band that isn't as inspired as they were on No. 4, llack focus and even reuse musical ideas from previous albums. Now this isn't a bad album but you just expect more from STP, but I got to say that Coma is the best track off this album with a freaking monster riff and a kick-ass guitar solo too bad the rest of this production was not as good as this song, Day of the Week is also fantastic.
Overall: 51.3
Velvet Revolver
Contraband (2004)
Genre: Hard Rock
Pretty straightforward hard rocking fun, they don't try to push any musical boundaries. Basically, we have Scott Weiland teaming up with the boys from Guns and Roses: Slash, Duff, and Matt Sorum, plus Dave Kushner. This album is pretty heavy very guitar driven with Slash being one of the best parts of this project landing some sweet solos and sick guitar riffs. Matt Sorum's drums are pretty straightforward hard rock drums, but you can tell that dude really hits those skins hard and injects an impressive amount of energy into each song. Duffs bass playing is pretty basic and Dave Kushner's playing is ok. Scott does recycle some ideas from his work with STP, but the good thing is you can hear him being more aggressive than on previous projects. And the band is able to make a couple of memorable rock hits like Slither and Sucker Train Blues. But to be honest I never really liked this particular Weiland side project.
Overall: 52.1
Army of
Anyone (Filter/Stone Temple Pilots; Side Project)
Stone
Temple Pilots
Tiny
Music…Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop (1996)
Genre: Alternative
Pop/Rock, Hard Rock, Psychedelic Rock, Jangle Pop
This
album brings back memories, a friend of mine lent it to me when it came out,
and I basically liked it so much that I never gave it back to him ( I know I'm a real asshole). Now
it's incredible to listen to it, to hear how good it is, the band has taken a
quantum leap in their capacity of musical composition, but the thing was they
were in all kinds of turmoil, Scott had some major drug issues, started a solo
project while the rest of the band started to work on another project called Talk Show.
So here we go with my review of my favorite STP album.
Vocals and Lyrics: Scott keeps on writing colossally
goods songs, he shows new aspects, vocally and lyrically. 10
Instrumentation:
Guitar: Dean
also has evolved as guitar player, this new direction in composition really accommodates
his style and makes him stand out.
Bass: Robert’s
bass playing is awesome.
Drums: Eric’s playing is more laid back and relaxed on
this album, serving better the new direction in their songs. 8
Melody and/or Structure: The songs have a classic pop
structure, and there are some tracks that have some killer riffs like “Seven
Caged Tigers”. The melodies
that they
work on are fresh and memorable, where Scott works as the bands ring
master. This album was recorded in a mansion like Red Hot Chili Pepper's
Blood Sugar Sex Magic, which gives the production a real organic feel.
10
Sound, Production and Feeling: The sound to this album
is stunning, hats off to Brendan O’Brian, and he puts the band in a new context
leaving their more muscular grunge sound behind for this album. What I like the
most is the textures of the different types of guitar distortions that Dean
uses. 12
Songs: It’s so
good, that it actual sounds too short even though it has 11 track, but it keeps you
wanting more. 11
Originality: Hey man the band captured lighting in a
jar on this album, this production is probably their creative zenith.12
Overall:63
Talk Show (Stone Temple Pilots)
Talk Show
(1997)
Genre: Alternative
Rock, Post Grunge, Hard Rock
Scott Weiland
and the rest of STP part ways after Tiny Music, so they get a new lead singer;
Dave Coutts, from Ten Inch Men, and take up the name of Talk Show, and put out this album. Let’s face
it, the magic just isn’t there, this production is mediocre at best.
Vocals and Lyrics: Dave Coutts in my opinion doesn’t
bring anything to original to the table, his lyrics are ok and he’s an ok
singer, that’s it. 7
Instrumentation: The
band plays at their excellent level and are the only good thing on this album. 7.3
Melody and/or Structure: There are some good riff here
and there. 8
Sound, Production and Feeling: It sounds pretty good,
it closer to Purple than Tiny Music. 8
Songs: Hello Hello is the only really good track, and it's to
bad the rest of the album isn’t as good. 6
The Bad: The album lags and sags.
Originality: The material isn’t very original in
general, but the main issue is that Dave just doesn’t gel with the band. 7
Overall: 43.3
Scott
Weiland
12 bar Blues
(1998)
Genre: Alternative
Rock, Neo-Psychedelia
Scott’s
musical ambition can’t be contained to the structure of a traditional hard rock
band; so he sets out to make his magnum opus on his own and lets everything fly
on this album, with some pretty interesting results.
Vocals and Lyrics: Vocally and Lyrically, Scott does a
good job, but to be honest there isn’t anything to memorable or ground
breaking, in this department. 8
Instrumentation/Production: The instrumentation sort
of melds in with the production, there are tons of loops, samples, use of midi,
guitars and Bass with all kinds of effects. There's is a lot going on in the
background of each song. The only two musical guests that stand out are Sheryl
Crow who plays the accordion on a track and Peter DiStefano (Porno for Pyros)
who plays the guitar and bass on a few tracks. Since the production has a heavy
hand in the composition Daniel Lanois (Peter Gabriel, U2, Bob Dylan…), the
producer, probably pumped his two cents in the project too.
7.1
Melody and/or Structure: It’s great to see an album
that is so production dependent but actually has songs, the machines don’t take
over and hijack the song, like they tend to do, and there are some really solid
songs with great melodies. And most of the songs are pretty unpredictable Scott
experiments a lot. 10
Sound, Production and Feeling: 10
Songs: It a wild ride from front to back. 11
The Bad: Almost none of the stuff on this album can be
played live.
Originality: It’s an experimental album that really
pushes the boundaries, in musical creativity and self indulgence for Weiland. 10
Overall: 56.1
Stone Temple Pilots
No. 4 (1999)
Genre: Grunge, Hard Rock, Psychedelic Rock
This is probably STP's heaviest album, it's like a steamroller of hard rock. It's very direct to the point, this production wants to rock and it has great material to do it, Scott and the band have great chemistry and they pump out some fantastic tracks the first 4 tracks are hard rockers with Down being one of their best openers to an album, it mellows briefly on track 5 with Sour girl but you immediately have No Way out and Sex & Violence having the band back in heavy mode, sadly the album does lose a little steam at the end of this production.
Overall: 53.4
Stone Temple Pilots
No. 4 (1999)
Genre: Grunge, Hard Rock, Psychedelic Rock
This is probably STP's heaviest album, it's like a steamroller of hard rock. It's very direct to the point, this production wants to rock and it has great material to do it, Scott and the band have great chemistry and they pump out some fantastic tracks the first 4 tracks are hard rockers with Down being one of their best openers to an album, it mellows briefly on track 5 with Sour girl but you immediately have No Way out and Sex & Violence having the band back in heavy mode, sadly the album does lose a little steam at the end of this production.
Overall: 53.4
Stone Temple PilotsShangri-La Di DA (2001)
Genre: Post Grunge, Hard Rock, Psychedelic Rock
This album starts off pretty strong but here we have a band that isn't as inspired as they were on No. 4, llack focus and even reuse musical ideas from previous albums. Now this isn't a bad album but you just expect more from STP, but I got to say that Coma is the best track off this album with a freaking monster riff and a kick-ass guitar solo too bad the rest of this production was not as good as this song, Day of the Week is also fantastic.
Overall: 51.3
Velvet Revolver
Contraband (2004)
Genre: Hard Rock
Pretty straightforward hard rocking fun, they don't try to push any musical boundaries. Basically, we have Scott Weiland teaming up with the boys from Guns and Roses: Slash, Duff, and Matt Sorum, plus Dave Kushner. This album is pretty heavy very guitar driven with Slash being one of the best parts of this project landing some sweet solos and sick guitar riffs. Matt Sorum's drums are pretty straightforward hard rock drums, but you can tell that dude really hits those skins hard and injects an impressive amount of energy into each song. Duffs bass playing is pretty basic and Dave Kushner's playing is ok. Scott does recycle some ideas from his work with STP, but the good thing is you can hear him being more aggressive than on previous projects. And the band is able to make a couple of memorable rock hits like Slither and Sucker Train Blues. But to be honest I never really liked this particular Weiland side project.
Overall: 52.1
Army of
Anyone (Filter/Stone Temple Pilots; Side Project)
Army of
Anyone (2006)
Genre: Hard
Rock, Alternative Rock/Metal
If you
are a hard rock or alternative metal fan, or you just enjoy music in general,
you most listen to this album, it will blow your mind, you got Richard Patrick
(Filter, ex Nine Inch Nails) on vocals, the DeLeo Brothers (Stone Temple
Pilots) guitar and bass and Ray Luzier (Korn, KXM, Billy Sheehan, David Lee
Roth…) on the drummes, nuff said; don’t waste your time reading this review go
listen this album.
Vocals and Lyrics: Richard Patrick does his best work
ever on this album, he really shows that he has an impressive vocal range, and
he pens down a couple great lyrics on this production. 10
Instrumentation:
Guitar/Bass: The DeLeo brothers kill it on this album, and there
are a couple of fantastic guitar solos on this album.
Drums: I like Ray’s drumming more in the context of a
hard rock band than in the context of Korn, his playing is obscenely good and
he pulls off a colossal solo on “Goodbye”. 8.5
Melody and/or Structure: The song have a basic pop
structure, with some really good riffs, but the impeccable use of melody and well placed passages
and breaks elevates this album from other hard rock projects out there.10
Sound, Production and Feeling: This album sounds greet,
with some cool production details here and there. 9
Songs: These guys gel incredibly well and this level
of this good of song writing for this type of super group is unheard off, they
are no fillers, it’s a solid full album, no bullshit. 12
Originality: This album is a breath of fresh air in
the stagnant world of alternative music in general, please make another album. 10
Overall: 59.5
Libertad (2007)
Happy in Galoshis (2008)
Genre: Alternative Rock, Psychedelic Rock
This is a double disc album where Scott should have crunched the track list down to 15 tracks instead of 21, and it could have been super classic ( note I discovered there is a leaner version of the album with 13 tracks). This album has many fantastic songs but you realize when you listen to it is that the songs have a strong STP vibe and it would have been better to have recorded it with his old bandmates. Scott plays it safe on most of the album but there is some residual experimentation of musical ideas from 12 Bar Blues.
Overall: 55
Art of Anarchy
A pretty heavy side project for Scott teaming up with Guns and Roses's guitar player Bumblefoot and Disturbed's bass player John Moyer. Their self-titled album is ok, I get thefeeling that Scott phoned in his performance, he just didn't give a F about this project and if he had put in more effort into each song it would have become an epic. The big highlight of the album is Bumblefoot's guitar playing.
Overall: 44
Blaster (2015)
Genre: Rock, Alternative Rock
This album out of all Scott's solo projects is the one that sounds the most organic and more like a product of a band, a really good batch of songs, and Weiland is back for business he sounds reinvigorated and pumped, but again you get the feeling these songs would have been better played with STP. Now I must say the Wildabouts did have much potential and it is very sad that this is Scott Weiland's last album before dieing what a shame.
Overall: 56.3
Stone Temple Pilots (2018)
Genre: Hard Rock, Alternative Rock
A fantastic come back album the Pilots killing it on this production, and to my surprise, the new Singing Jeff Gutt is great, even though it's a little creepy how he sounds a lot like Scott. Jeff doe does not have Scott's charisma but maybe on the next album he'll find his own style and voice the accommodates best to the needs of the band. The band sounds reinvigorated and inspired putting out a really good tracklist for this album.
Overall: 52
Libertad (2007)
Genre: Hard Rock
Round two for this rock extravaganza, the band is more
of a unite with more chemistry between them, Scott seems to have found his place in
the band, but this ablums track list even though it's pretty solid, it does not have any big
rock hits.
Overall: 49.6
Genre: Alternative Rock, Psychedelic Rock
This is a double disc album where Scott should have crunched the track list down to 15 tracks instead of 21, and it could have been super classic ( note I discovered there is a leaner version of the album with 13 tracks). This album has many fantastic songs but you realize when you listen to it is that the songs have a strong STP vibe and it would have been better to have recorded it with his old bandmates. Scott plays it safe on most of the album but there is some residual experimentation of musical ideas from 12 Bar Blues.
Overall: 55
Art of Anarchy
Art of Anarchy (2015)
Genre: Hard
Rock, Alternative Metal
A pretty heavy side project for Scott teaming up with Guns and Roses's guitar player Bumblefoot and Disturbed's bass player John Moyer. Their self-titled album is ok, I get thefeeling that Scott phoned in his performance, he just didn't give a F about this project and if he had put in more effort into each song it would have become an epic. The big highlight of the album is Bumblefoot's guitar playing.
Overall: 44
Blaster (2015)Genre: Rock, Alternative Rock
This album out of all Scott's solo projects is the one that sounds the most organic and more like a product of a band, a really good batch of songs, and Weiland is back for business he sounds reinvigorated and pumped, but again you get the feeling these songs would have been better played with STP. Now I must say the Wildabouts did have much potential and it is very sad that this is Scott Weiland's last album before dieing what a shame.
Overall: 56.3
Stone Temple Pilots 2010
A pile of Crap
Overall: 25
Stone Temple Pilots (2018)Genre: Hard Rock, Alternative Rock
A fantastic come back album the Pilots killing it on this production, and to my surprise, the new Singing Jeff Gutt is great, even though it's a little creepy how he sounds a lot like Scott. Jeff doe does not have Scott's charisma but maybe on the next album he'll find his own style and voice the accommodates best to the needs of the band. The band sounds reinvigorated and inspired putting out a really good tracklist for this album.
Overall: 52
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